Argella Stark
Queen Argella Stark is the eldest daughter of the late Rickard Stark and his wife Leona Stark. She is the twin sister of Jon Stark, who is the former Hand of the King to Edmund I Baelish. She was married to Lothar Baratheon in the third moon of 390 AC after a year-long betrothal, and later would become his queen upon his ascension to the throne following the Great Council of 390 AC. She is the mother of his two children, Lyonel and Lyanna. Believed to be inflicted with some sort of fainting sickness, Argella is in actuality a warg, a gift believed to be passed down her line through her great-grandfather Rickon Stark and grandfather Cregan Stark. She has two wolves that serve as her primary companions, Tempest and Squall, and a stag named Dreamer. Appearance Argella is of the North, and thus embodies the typical Northern beauty. Her hair is lusterless, her face long, and her eyes grey. Due to the results of her perceived affliction, she often appears tired, with dark circles under her eyes, and her frame is thin from not eating well. She hides this behind her hair and the clothing style of the north, which often makes her appear more filled out than she truly is. Short of stature, nearly everyone around her will have a few heads on Argella. History Litter (364 - 374 AC) Argella was born mere minutes after Jon Stark; a girl who hardly cried or fussed compared to the lungs of her brother; who bellowed his rage when he could for all of Winterfell to hear. Such silence was unnerving to their mother Leona, who tried to coax as much as she could out of her daughter in her infancy, all for naught. Argella spoke when she wished to, it seemed -- A nature that would carry into adulthood. Her days were spent in the company of family, which was bountiful at the time. Her grandfather Cregan, Lord of Winterfell, would in particular come to dote on the young lady. He would take her for walks in the glass-encased gardens, teach her archery, and let her sit on his knee as he officiated his will across the North. She would speak endlessly when he was with her, and the only words she would utter when he was gone were inquiries on when her Lord Grandfather would have time for her again. Jon shared in these privileges as well, but nothing seemed to sever the strange bond between the Lord and his granddaughter. Death finds a way, though. She was only six when her grandfather was killed by King Petyr II Baelish's folly, the Subjugation of the Iron Islands, an event that sent the Starks into a black mood, even the youngest in the litter. At first she denied the news; her grandfather was a great man, a large man, who was friends with the wolves. Surely that would have kept him in health? She would only accept his passing when his bones were brought back to Winterfell, and the girl wept fiercely at the sight. Her vigil at his sarcophagus in the crypts would only end with her mother carrying her from the grim locale, back to her bed in the young hours of the morning. Henceforth, Argella retreated back into a solitude that had once seemed so close to ending. The stoic nature of the Starks bloomed in the child, when she had once found such joy in her family -- Her nights were rocked with nightmares of ironmen and wolves, her days filled with the emptiness her Lord Grandfather had left behind. Now that her father was Lord of Winterfell, things seemed to grow stagnant in her life. He was a fair father, most agreed, he did not hit nor punish improperly, but he never seemed to have time for the little children, despite the pace that his lady wife was producing them. All agreed, that was most undue. Hunting (374 - 381 AC) It was only after Cregan’s death that a strange force began to work itself through Argella. What were once nightmares seemed to turn into dreams of longing, seeing through the eyes of a creature hunting through a forest that never ended. It was only then that her sickness would begin. Winterfell’s maester could not explain the illness. Nothing could. He was an old man who did not entertain the impossible, and magic was most certainly impossible. So when his lord’s daughter began to experience fainting spells, well… It was the work of disease, he exclaimed, the only right way about it. Argella Stark was desperately sick, and nothing they would try would 'heal' her. In truth, Argella stole away in the hours of evening, whether physically or mentally. She would seek out this creature that had called her name, a beastling she did not title, and befriend her. A she-wolf, proud, strong. The two would share flesh and bone, but she would not dare to bring the beast past the keep, lest she raise alarm. Her grandfather had befriended wolves. Look what had become of him. She kept her she-wolf a secret, and sometimes would only reach out to her in the darkest depths of night when she knew no man was around. Managing the lie of illness was at first difficult, but the symptoms of her match meant that lying happened less and less, and the truth of the aftermath came more and more. I am tired, I am hungry. Her boldness would go so far as to have a spell of fainting whilst her father held court; whilst the maester tended to her limp body, she ran free in the wilderness with a pack, no longer needing to hear words she did not wish to. When her she-wolf met her end, Argella felt it. Sleep, true sleep, was broken, and she screamed for all of Winterfell to hear at the loss that had suddenly tore through her. Though her illness seemed to ‘improve’, she did not feel any better. Her she-wolf was dead somewhere in the woods, and she had scarce come to know the creature before she had passed. Alpha (381 - 389 AC) With the rebellion of Brynden simmering, Lord Rickard and his son marched to war, and the women remained home. Argella had improved since the death of her she-wolf, who lingered on her mind in the weeks following the creature’s end. Since her she-wolf’s death, a crannogman had come calling to the court of Winter; Torrhen Reed, with a crooked smile and parts of a maester's chain. He had heard the whispers of Argella’s condition, and had traveled to meet her in order to confirm personal suspicions, which were naturally true. The crannogmen had their own stories of the blood of the First Men, and it pounded through the veins of Argella as true as any northerner. Together they set out to find her she-wolf, to learn it’s fate, while the men played at war. When she found the pups, Argella almost cried, though from the irony or the sadness she could say. She had always imagined her she-wolf had died in some grand way, the same way her grandfather had died for his King. Not so. Her she-wolf had met the worst battle a woman could face, the birthing bed, and had failed. Her three children remained, hues of black and grey and white, and Argella gathered them in her arms, the small things, and took them to Winterfell. None argued with her when she began to care for them. Jon’s return as Lord of Winterfell signalled a turning point, not just in the Starks of Winterfell, but Argella herself. Lord Jon returned their father’s bones, and claimed a wolf pup for his own, perhaps the one thing the twins would ever find common ground in. When he left the North to serve the dying king, any news from him had become good news to her. But his news of a betrothal to a southron lord would be the one thing that proved contentious. Match (390 AC - Present) Lothar Baratheon. A name she’d come to think on often. Cruel? Kind? Would he call her a witch? Would she even tell him of her gifts? Would her children by this storm lord bear them too? Already she felt bonds to the babes she cared for, the brother and sister she had named Tempest and Squall, and knew one day they would be hers in more than just ownership. She almost feared the idea now, knowing the match awaiting her in the south. First, however, she protested the point, to stall the inevitable. Her father had not been in a rush to marry her before, why was her brother in one to marry her now? Though, her father had treated her like a Myrish lens he did not risk breaking, and in his care she might have lived a matron in Winterfell for the rest of her days. That almost suited her better than what Jon had arranged, but Argella was a Stark. She would not cow from a battle, even those fought along the lines of marriage, and resolved herself to prove she was just as much a wolf as any of them. And to prove why stags fled at the scent of wolves. In the year 390 since Aegon’s Conquest, Argella would travel to King’s Landing with the Stark retinue for King Edmund’s tourney, and to wed her betrothed at long last in the moons following. While the events of the former are more exciting than the dread of the latter, Argella is armed with her leal companions, her wolves of Winterfell, who protect her from all dangers. And in the treacherous south, the Alpha only seeks to grow her pack in the face of the unknown. Personality TBD Timeline '''364 AC' - Jon & Argella Stark are born. 370 AC - The Subjugation of the Iron Islands. Lord Cregan Stark, Argella’s grandfather, dies. 374 AC - Argella wargs into her first animal, an un-named she-wolf. 381 AC - Brynden’s rebellion begins. Argella’s she-wolf dies birthing pups that she later finds and adopts. 384 AC - The rebellion ends. Jon returns home as Lord of Winterfell. He claims a wolf pup, then heads south. 389 AC - Argella is betrothed to Lothar Baratheon. 390 AC - The Stark retinue arrives in King's Landing for Edmund's tourney, and for Argella's wedding. Story Timeline This is the correct order of Argella's story chronologically. These threads are linked below. * Argella I - Storms & Saints * Pack I - Ravening * Melony I - A City of History * Argella II - King's Men ** Out Into the Streets * The Great Feast of 390 AC * When the Stag met the Wolf * Idleness Leads to Sin * Argella III - Between Two Lungs * Supernova * Meeting the Mother Wolf * Argella IV - Who Are You, Really? ** Argella IV 1/2 - Sunflower * Argella V - Leave My Body * Pack(mate) II - Division * Back To A New Home * Into the Stone * Argella VI - There's A Wolf * Mate I - Devil In Your Eye * Three Weddings * Argella VII - Skeletons * Mate II - King and Lionheart Family Tree FamilyEcho Threads This section will organize and list all threads Argella has interacted in or started into three categories. Argella Threads directly involving Argella or her family; general threads. * Argella I - Storms & Saints (390.1 AC) * Melony I - A City of History (390.1 AC) * Argella II - King's Men (390.1 AC) ** Out Into the Streets (390.1 AC [Occurs at the same time as Argella II]) * The Great Feast of 390 AC (390.1 AC) * Idleness Leads to Sin (390.1 AC) * Argella III - Between Two Lungs (390.1 AC) * Supernova (390.1 AC) * Meeting the Mother Wolf (390.1 AC) * Argella IV - Who Are You, Really? (390.1 AC) ** Argella IV 1/2 - Sunflower (390.1 AC [Occurs at the same time as Argella IV]) * Argella V - Leave My Body (390.1 AC) * Back To A New Home (390.2 AC) * Into The Stone (390.2 AC) * Argella VI - There's A Wolf (390.2 AC) * [https://www.reddit.com/r/IronThroneRP/comments/da1mu5/three_weddings_open_to_all_at_storms_end/ Three Weddings]' (390.3 AC)' * Argella VII - Skeletons (390.3 AC) * Argella VIII - Flesh and Bone (390.4 AC) Pack Threads directly involving Argella and her wolf pack only. * Pack I - Ravening (390.1 AC) * Pack(mate) II - Division (390.2 AC) Mate Threads directly involving Argella and her husband as the primary subjects. * When the Stag met the Wolf (390.1 AC) * Mate I - Devil In Your Eye (390.2 AC) * Mate II - King and Lionheart (390.4 AC)Category:House Stark Category:The North